Category: Starting

Building On Fill – Concrete Piers

Its not unusual for the Site Investigation for your new house to reveal fill materials on top of the more stable clay or rock.

Even if there is no fill the builder may need to level a sloping site using ‘Cut and Fill’ methods, or the top layers of soil are generally poor.

To deal with the problem of building on poor ground concrete piers are commonly used.

These are basically a hole that is excavated through the fill and into the top of good ground. The hole is then backfilled with concrete to the level of the underside of the slab.

When they are finished you have a flat site with concrete pads (like the photo below), ready for the slab to be constructed

You don’t have to have Concrete piers over the whole site, just the parts where there will be fill between the bottom of the slab and the stronger soils.

The following diagram shows a typical slab on a cut and fill site with piers excavated through the fill to the good ground.

See the following link for an alternative to Concrete Piers: Screw Piles.

The Slab is likely to be either a Waffle Pod Raft or a Conventional Raft Slab

When the site investigation indicates fill the builder will often put in a Provisional Sum for so many metres of concrete piers.

At the time of construction they will drill down to  good ground in the fill areas and calculate the actual metres you will need to pay for.

If your whole house is on ‘Controlled Fill‘ You may not need to use concrete piers.

 

Lots more information in the anewhouse Guide to Buying a Block for only $4

See Ground Conditions for more about your new house foundations.

 

Considering Owner Building?

Are you considering owner building to save money? Is it the only way you can afford your dream? Perhaps you want to be able to have more choice with fittings and appliances.

Well I have almost 40 years in Construction engineering and I have been happy to use building companies for my three new houses. I wouldn’t contemplate owner building unless I won Tattslotto and could give it my full attention. Here are some reasons why:

  1. Having a house built for you and building one yourself is very different. There are literally hundreds of decisions that are made by supervisors and builders during a build that you would never be aware of as the owner.
  2. You may know a number of tradies but how good are they? Would they take short cuts if you weren’t around to keep an eye on things.
  3. I’m skeptical about how much money you save. You may be able to call on your friends to supply & install for cheaper but you won’t get the discounts that a big builder can negotiate.
  4. Yes you can save by putting time in yourself but you are not going to be as efficient as a tradesman if you costed your time at the rate your employer pays you the saving would be much smaller, if anything.
  5. All the time you put in will be at the expense of family life. I have known a few self builders who have divorced with the main cause been the pressure of the build.
  6. One off projects are hard to budget accurately so you run a real risk of blowing your budget. (You don’t want to finish up with a ghost house).
  7. Anything that goes wrong has to be fixed by you. Going with a builder, anything not to your specifications is their problem.
  8. There is a saying 90% of the effort is the last 10% of a job. Are you going to move into a 90% house and then never going to get round to actually finishing it?
  9. Want to sell in a few years? How are you going to provide a guarantee.

There is an Owner Builder interview and some interesting video links at the Post: Owner Builder Videos

I’m not intending to scare you out of your dream!………….. I just want to make sure you have thought very carefully about the risks ………..otherwise dreams can turn into nightmares!

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

Want to choose a builder? or just a tradie for your self build project?

Look at Choosing a Builder

 

Why I Used Jenman System Agents To Sell

Unless your new house is the first house you own you are going to have to sell your existing house.

Lots of people in Melbourne use auctions but I have never been very keen on that approach.

We have now sold two houses using Jenman System Agents and have been very satisfied.

We recently sold our home in Wydham Vale using Brian Mark Real Estate of Werribee. Previously we we sold an investment property in Chadstone about 7 years ago using T G Newton Real Estate of Oakleigh

If you look through their websites you will see lots of reasons for using them but the three advantages that I really like are:

  • They are quite clear that their duty is to you as seller of the house.

In my experience they go all out to get the best price for the house rather than tell buyers you may be willing to drop the price.

  • They carefully vet all people that are taken through your house.

Much better than ‘Open for Inspections’ when criminals could ‘case’ your house anonymously by giving a false name to the agent.

  • You only pay when the house is sold

I have often wonder if those advertising campaigns some agents charge you for upfront are really advertising the house for you, or the Agent to get more interest in all his offerings.

If there is a local Jenman Agent why not give them a try?

 

Disclaimer

I have not been paid for this post and did not receive any discount on the sale of either house

 

How Much Can You Afford

So you want a new house?

Before you start going around display houses the first thing you need to figure out is how much you can afford. Get this wrong as a couple and it can damage your relationship, and you could finish up with a Ghost House.

Don’t let the marketing convince you to be too ambitious. Its better to get a smaller house and no financial stress than a big house and be struggling for the next ten years. After all its nice to be able to have some money left over after the bills have been paid to enjoy yourself.

The Barefoot Investor talks a lot of sense when he talks about the 20 -10 – 30 Rule. That’s have a 20% deposit, be prepared for a 10% interest rate rise, and don’t have mortgage repayment’s of more than 30% of your wages.

When we started off our approach was that we would borrow no more than I could pay off from my wages while leaving enough for living expenses. We also had mainly second hand furniture.

My wife’s wages went on buying new furniture, home improvements, holidays and luxuries. This meant that if she got pregnant or any other problems occurred we could still keep the house without major stress.

This meant that our first house was a small two bedroom house. Very much at the lower end of the housing ladder, but we were on the ladder, and building up equity for that next step. The running costs of the smaller house were also lower which certainly helped us pay off the mortgage faster before our next house.

Even if you already own a house and are looking to trade up the same financial considerations apply to your next house!

How big was your first House?

 

Budget has more posts about finding a house the right size for you

 

Block Orientation

Sponsored by Coral Homes

When looking at block orientation a key issue is using the sun to warm the house in winter and keeping the sun out of the rooms in the summer.

Typical blocks in Australia are rectangular. About twice as long as the block width, as are most home designs. This limits the way you can place the house. In my experience the order of preference of blocks is.

1. Facing East
2. Facing West
3. Facing South
4. Facing North

If you have got a block at an angle it will require a bit more thought unless you can orientate the house in one of the above preferred directions. Larger blocks and square blocks make adjustments to the house orientation easier.

My reasons for the preferences are as follows:

Facing East

This orientation allows one of the long sides to face north making the best use of the sun in a passive solar house. Usually the master bedroom is at the front so even in the summer the low sun morning sun only warms the bedroom from the chill of the night. Windows can be minimised on the west side to stop the house overheating in the afternoon and evening. This orientation also gives you plenty of roof area for the most effective location of solar hot water and solar electricity panels.

Facing West

Again like the east facing block you can have one of the long sides to face north making the best use of the sun in a passive solar house. With a master bedroom at the front you will need to take steps to keep the afternoon sun out of the room to stop overheating. Like the East facing orientation this is useful for solar panels on the roof.

Facing South

With a house facing south the best layout is to have as many rooms as possible having large windows facing north which can be difficult on a narrow block. To make the best of this orientation you may need to have plans drawn up as most standard plans don’t suit this orientation. It’s also best to minimise west facing windows.

Facing North

A north facing house is probably the least desirable on a suburban block as it makes it hard to get the sun into the house. I certainly wouldn’t want big north facing windows allowing passers by to look in.

 

Lots more information in the anewhouse Guide to Buying a Block for only $4

See similar posts see Choosing a Block and Passive Solar

 

What Will It Cost?

When you are setting your budget for a new house, it’s not only the cost of the house and land, but all the other things that you might not have thought about.

If you haven’t considered these you might find that as well as a big mortgage your credit cards are all maxed out.

Here are some of the things you will need to consider based on Melbourne Outer Metro prices (say 35-40 km from CBD) in late 2010.

The costs are based on a small house with the builders basic fit out, say 15 square (140m2):

LAND

Cost of land $150,000 PLUS

Stamp duty say $5,000 PLUS

Legal fees say 2% $3,000

 

BUILDING

Basic cost of building say $150,000

Building cost are in the range $6,000 to $8,500 a square. Smaller houses have higher costs per square with cost per square reducing as the house gets bigger.

Site Cost say  5%  $7500

Excavation to level the site (See this link: Steeper Sites) and/or additional foundations (See this link: Poor Ground ) and costs can quadruple.

Extras say 5% $6,500 plus

Can includes extra electrical fittings, washing line, garden paths. If you want premium kitchen and bathroom units it could be $50,000 or more. (see this link: Love the Display Home)

Legal fees say 2% $3,000

Fence say $2,000

Light fittings, picture hooks, curtains, blinds and other bits and pieces say $5,000

Garden say $10,000 plus

Additional Furniture say $5,000 plus

Removal say $1,000

 

TOTAL

Land and House $348,000 plus

Remember even if you get a house and land package for $300,000 you will need to allow for at least another $40,000 before you have finished.

A big cost is the land. This cost will drop as you go further from the city.

When I first bought a house the rule was you could only borrow two and a half times your annual salary! If you were to go back to that rule the only way to go in the future would be to fit houses on smaller blocks.

 

Just Starting Off . . .  Check out the: anewhouse Guides

For similar posts see Starting Off

 

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